Wise Systems

CHAZZ SIMS: I'm Chazz Sims. I'm CEO and co-founder of Wise Systems. I actually studied here at MIT, graduated in 2013 from undergrad Computer Science. I also did my Masters of Engineering here as well, and I did that over at the MIT Media Lab.

Wise got started-- our founding team came together about four years ago. Actually, we were in a class called Development Ventures, over at the MIT Media Lab and there we were challenged to think about problems that were global and that affected people not only here in the United States, but also in a much broader context. At the time, we started really studying, and looking to better understand cities and how they would change over time, whether it's due to logistics, smart cities, all those different types of things. That's when we really came together, and about two years ago we started really looking into logistics, and better starting to see that at the heart of every city is Last Mile Delivery and logistics.

We did a program here at MIT called GFSA, we did an accelerator, and that's when we really started talking to companies and operating the space, and that's when we really kicked off Wise Systems.

Logistics and Last Mile, there's tons of data being generated from the movement of drivers throughout the city to how long it takes to actually complete a delivery once you're on site. Whether it's due to the customer not being there or maybe there's heavy foot traffic. Say you're delivering to a 7-Eleven and there's a lot of people coming in and the person there can't actually take the delivery when you show up, or other vehicles showing up.

There is all these different things that often seem random and unpredictable within the space, but we try to collect all of that data and start to better understand what the driver sees when he's on the ground and what's happening when he's completed the deliveries, and using that to help make better plans in the future.

We've built a system that uses machine learning in order to take all that data and help build better plans in the future, because a lot of Last Mile's about planning, it's about execution, and we believe it's also about learning from those things as well.

One of the biggest things, I think, within delivery and logistics is people want things faster, and they want them when they want them. It's not necessarily, OK, I can wait a week, or you can put me on a schedule and I'll get it every other week or once a month. It's like, I want it right now. And within that, you do have to have systems that are more flexible. You have to be able to be able to respond and respond efficiently, because if you aren't able to do that, it doesn't work for the business and it ends up not working well for the customer. That's where we spend a lot of time focusing now. How do we make sure our system is as flexible and fast enough to be able to do all the computations necessary, to make it easy for the driver to get on board with the changes in his schedule or his plan and all of that, in order to make sure that people can get stuff when they want it.

When you are a startup, oftentimes you're trying to find people who are willing to take a risk. Whether it's a big company or a small company, stateside or out in other countries, it's looking to be able to find people that can take risks and are willing to do that and partner with you for innovation.

Some of that push back were companies that weren't at the place where they could take that risk, and so we looked to find people within our networks and things here and we were able to find some companies, locally, that were able to take that risk, but also have global counterparts as well.

We were accepted to be a part of the E14 Fund about two years ago now, and it's been a great experience for us because, myself included, three of my co-founders were part of the Media Lab as students, and being able to continue to have that network and those relationships as we have built the company, and the support, has been pretty crucial for us from being able to connect us with companies, being able to, in some ways, help us get mentorship, and advice as we've been building the company throughout the last couple years. It definitely has been pretty valuable, for sure.

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CHAZZ SIMS: So I would say, right now, we aren't in a place of social justice yet, but we are looking at one, the focus on logistics and last mile. In some ways we do look at our technology as being able to definitely work here in the US, and then finding ways and how the problem differs when you're in different contexts and different regions of the world. And so you do have to think about different accesses to data and network connectivity and things like that. And so, within that, that is something that's exciting because we do have a lot of different backgrounds and are from different places in the world. And so we are looking and thinking about how our technology will scale, and we'll be able to go into those contexts. But in some ways we have had to focus now more on the United States just in the initial phases, just as we are building and building our reputation within the industry so that when we go it's much easier.

Because we did actually start off initially working in those regions, and there is a little bit of push-back just because people wanted to see something that was already working and in another region, another country. And so within that, we have done some work here, and we are pretty excited about that day when we can go to Latin America, parts of the Middle East, Africa, and stuff as well. So we have actually worked with companies of all shapes and sizes. We actually have done some work with multiple Global 500 companies. So we're pretty excited about some of those, and they've had a great willingness to try out our technology. And so, with some, we do proof of concept. We'll use some of their historical data and be able to show an analysis of how our system would run and its scenarios. And for others, we've done deployments, and we're working on expanding those as well.

And so, when we do a deployment, often we have a driver, a smartphone application for the drivers, and we also have an application for the dispatchers. And so, they can see, the dispatcher can see what's going on and be able to get access to all this data that we collect and reporting and analytics. And the driver, he gets a schedule on his phone that constantly updates throughout the day. And so, we'll go, and they'll download the application, and then they can get to try out the technology. And they'll bake it into some of their core processes. So, we'll go to a new site where they have 50 vehicles on the ground, and we'll give them our technology, and it's like it's part of their everyday workflow. It's like they're going to send the stuff over to Wise, and then we will optimize and help make adjustments.

But one of the things that we have spent a lot of time thinking about, and so in some ways we did see it coming, but we just didn't understand the extent, was just being able to create an application that drivers like and enjoy using. When we first built the application, we had some thought of how they would probably use it, and what was best for them, and what they would enjoy. And then we actually had a couple of our co-founders ride in trucks with these guys and see as they're like, oh, this is great, but I hate this. We're like, why did we even do that? And so, being able to get that feedback directly from the drivers was incredible and helped us iterate on our product. And so as we do changes and updates, we love to get out there with the drivers and see how they're using it and see if it makes sense. Because being able to get their buy-in is like huge and something that we do focus on a lot in our company.

One of the things that I would say that we just had to adjust to with being a startup, and honestly coming from IT, is just one of the challenges is just like the pace of working with large corporate companies. And so you know it's just like timelines are a little different, like you might have a good meeting and something, and it's like OK I'm going to do everything tomorrow, and we're going to be ready to go. But there's just the process of approvals, and being able to talk to the right people, and again, getting the right people on board, and getting the right systems and everything in place in order to move and navigate in an organization. And so, that's something we've learned a lot about and definitely has come into play. And so it's not really a bad thing, it's just they have systems in place, and so and we're dealing with a company of 10 people, and they're dealing without thousands of people. And so being able to-- and they can't just jump every time something new and flashy comes in-- and so it's just being able to understand that there are things that need to happen their approvals that you have to go through. And so being able to work through and navigate that process and then start to line up the two timelines is something that we spend a lot of time working about, and thinking about, and how do we do that well.

SPEAKER: I'm the CEO of Wise. So I do, again, many different things, from fundraising, do a lot of strategy. I'm a part of sales as well, help think about the product vision, where is it going. And I even do still some work on the product as well. I actually developed the iPhone application. And so I still help and do updates and changes there. And then even think about things like marketing. Where are we going to get new leads from? And thinking about how we hire and who we hire. And so, yeah, my role is-- it has a lot of different facets, but I enjoy it a lot.

I mean, I love the strategy a lot. I do also love thinking about the product vision and where are we going. Like, what's the future going to be like? And where do we need to position ourselves in order to be able to do these things? But again, there's also a pacing thing there. It's like, that's what the future is, but what do we need to do now? And so being able to think about that roadmap, and how do we align the team and get the vision in place for what we need to build, again, today, and then tomorrow, and years out, is one of the things I do I just love, and I enjoy, and enjoy talking about, and whiteboarding, and everything that goes along with it.

So I would say the vision in the future-- I mean, one, we do want to be in a place that we are everywhere. And so when I look at it, I look at it being in a place where I"m sitting in a restaurant, and I look at the sandwich that got there. It's like, oh, this was a part of our system. Our system helped get this food here. Our system helped get these products there, whether you're going to the grocery store, again, sitting in a restaurant, eating your favorite sandwich, and all these different things. That's what I see.

And so being able to do that again here in the United States, but in all these different contexts and regions of the world, that's where I want to take the company and where I see us going. And I'm with that. I do think we're going to be able to adjust some of the different ways that delivery is changing, whether it's through drones, or autonomous vehicles, on-demand vehicles. All these things are in the space. And so it's not always going to be a company with their drivers doing the deliveries. And so looking to see how do we bring those into our network, and our platform, and our technology I think will be the challenge.

They loved that, one, it was responsive, it seemed. I think also one of the big things was they felt like they could trust it. They did feel like, OK, you guys-- you know what they're doing. Often they sometimes get schedules and things, where they're like, this just doesn't make sense. I'm going to forget it and then do my own thing. But that was one of the things that they originally liked, was just that we seemed to have a good grasp of what was going on throughout the day.

But the thing that we have added to it is just being able to collect their feedback. And they can say, hey, this doesn't quite make sense, and we will learn that and change that for the next time. And so for them to be able to put in that feedback and have their voice be heard has been crucial. And so they love that about the technology, because often some of these organizations, you know they don't get heard. It's like they don't have a way to report all the things they're seeing on the ground. Maybe a customer showed up late, or the schedule isn't really what they thought, or a delivery time wasn't-- the customer says something different than what they actually told the sales rep back in the day. And so being able to collect that feedback, they love that a lot.

You look at just how many drivers there actually are and people that are doing the same type of model. Just visiting places, whether it's sales reps, where it's people delivering goods, where it's doing home care-- it's actually a pretty huge industry. And so, yeah, we can actually have a big impact being able to help make their lives easier or the jobs easier, and help make them more efficient so they can get back home at the end of the day.

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CHAZZ SIMS: Yeah, I would say one of the things, the way we think about it, it's pretty different from a lot of other companies. A lot of companies focus on the planning part of delivery and logistics. They like to try to build the best plan possible.

But I hinted at this a little bit beforehand, but we think of it as three phases. It's like, OK, what's what plan are you going to have? How are we going to help you execute it throughout the day? So we have technology to help make changes as the day goes by. And then, we collect all the data to help improve the process over time. And so it's three phases. It's the planning. It's the execution. And then it's learning from what you did. And so that, I think, separates us from a lot of the companies out there and helps us build a much better technology.

It's pretty interesting once you're at that level and you are able to go into those places, because some ways we've already talked to some people about this. We haven't been able to actively do it yet. But a lot of it comes down to city planning as well. And how do you build and think about your cities, and optimize them for logistics and make that possible? And so with some of the data and the stuff that we learn, you can actually start to better understand what needs to happen in a city in order to help improve delivery, help make it more efficient, make it a place where people can live and work, but also get things delivered. And so I think that's one aspect of it.

I think another is, again, being able to develop the technology and start to understand the regions, and be able to adapt it based off of how that region operates a little differently. And so one, again, it can be from a technology standpoint, looking at, OK, I have different connectivity, different data that's there. But also being able to collect different sets of data, whether it's here we might focus more on weather and traffic. But in different regions, it's a whole different set of data that you really should be looking at. Maybe it's events or what's going on in the community in that day. And so being able to start to take other ways to look at our technology and apply it to different regions, I think that all that will come [INAUDIBLE].

At that point, yes, it does have to be pretty big. And it does affect a lot of people more than just the companies there. And so I agree with that. And so part of that is the reason why we, again, saw the need to build the technology and build some of the company here first in some ways because it is a massive vision. And it's one of those things where it's like we don't want to put it off and be like, we'll never get there. But do have to look at what steps need to happen before we can be at that point where we can be able to have those conversations and come with the expertise and everything that's needed.

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CHAZZ SIMS: Resolution Project is about looking to build a social enterprise. And so being able to build a company that not only thinks about-- maybe it's not even thinking about profit at all. But it's also looking at, OK, how does this impact the world? How does this impact people at a larger scale? And so within that, they have helped us think about, OK, where and when does that become a part of our company? And how do we make sure that that is something that we are thinking about as we grow the business? And again, we're not just thinking about the profit, but also thinking about, how do we affect people's lives and change people's lives?

And so whether it's here in the United States, but also looking at a broader context in other regions and things as well. So that's the Resolution Project. And so they got on board with us pretty early on. I think it was about three years ago. And so it was pretty exciting to get their vote of confidence and then continue to have them advise us as we go forward too.

So we actually are thinking a lot about what will be coming up next and how do we get ourselves out there. One of my co-founders, she actually went and did a presentation. It was like a rocket space. It's a company out in San Francisco. And she did a presentation on how corporate companies can work with startups. And so she got to be a part of that and do a keynote at the end of the conference they had that. So that was pretty exciting.

Next year, we are looking at being involved in some of the logistics conferences out there. There's one for retail, one for private truck fleets. So those are some of the ones that we're thinking about being a part of.

I think Latin America-- the reason I mention Latin America is just because we've started to build up more relationships there. One of our advisors actually has a lot of connections in Latin America.

SPEAKER: What's your advisor's name?

CHAZZ SIMS: His name is Edgar Blanco. And so he's over at Walmart now helping direct their logistics strategy. He used to be at the MIT Center for Transportation Logistics directing research. And so he has a lot of connections there. One of the customers that we've started working with, they have a lot of connections and vehicles over in that region as well. And so it might be a good place where we can use the relationships and things that we already have in order to start expanding. And so we are pretty excited about that.

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